you asked if you randomly asked people
in streets to tell you the attributes of
the tanzanian culture I’m sure
hospitality will be one of them
hospitality has always been part and
parcel of our culture askance onions
whenever receive visitors we treat them
with good food good drinks and we try to
make them feel at home along the same
lines there’s a Swahili saying Jenny
geo- japoni which loosely means when
someone visits the host gets to benefit
because it’s a custom for visitors to
carry something for the host relatives
from my mother’s village who visited
Ella around early 1990s used to bring a
lot of things including some news about
a neighbor or a pastor’s son or any
person they know whose lives have
changed because whose life has changed
because he got a job in a refugee camp
that had recently been opened in their
district so that news gave me an
impression that there could be better
job possibility in a refugee field so at
the University I decided to check
refugee law as an option of course
actually chosen and credit course
because I was not going to sit for the
final exam but four years after my
graduation I got a job with UNHCR and
guess what my salary was going to be
twice as much as water was receiving in
my former job in my previous job so I
was very excited I was like wow so they
were telling the truth people’s lives
but unfortunately for me that excitement
didn’t last long this was actually the
first time when I got an opportunity to
closely engage with refugees and to try
to understand their situation before
that my understanding of refugees was
just superficial I knew for example that
freedom of movement is a right of
everyone including refugees but I was
ready to accept that it’s okay to keep
refugees in camps for maintaining peace
and security protects job markets for
the trans onions and things like that
and by then I thought that in order to
strike a balance between protecting the
needs of refugees and the interests of
convenience it’s okay to keep refugees
in camps as long as the conditions
incomes I improved that’s what I was
thinking so basically what I was
thinking was if there comes are more
like this camp in Israel and less than
less of this camp in Kenya then it
should be okay for Refugees to live in
comes I never asked myself some two
important questions one how long does a
refugee stain account it doesn’t matter
which is the other one we saw all this
one in word that that time means to him
and everyone involved including the host
government asked and onions and donors
and the second the second question that
I never got to ask myself was how did
refugee survive before coming to
Tanzania so unit see our estimates that
an average time a refugee spends in
exile is 18 years so if you are refugee
in Tanzania that means that’s 18 years
one of my colleagues balance comes from
Congo DRC and he’s my favorite colleague
not just because he’s hardworking and
charming and talented but because of his
cool Congolese music moves so bernal’s
family has lived in narubu so camp for
19 years since 1996 when they arrived in
Tanzania balance is lucky because we got
a slim opportunity to attend a
university here in Tanzania and our
office went an extra mile to up to try
to apply for a work permit for him so
that he doesn’t go back to the camp
after his graduation and believe me that
process was not an easy one so if you
are if you are one of thousands refugees
who are not as lucky as balanced it
means those are 19 years of sitting
around seeing your dreams and future
vanishing in front of you and if your
father like mister dari already sorry
that’s balanced father that’s actually
19 years of giving up your role of being
a head the head of your family because
how can you be the head of family while
the responsibility of providing needs as
basic as food and clothes to your family
have been taken over by humanitarian
organizations they’re actually 19 year
olds men and women who were born in
for the government now we’re talking
about tanzania and its partners these 19
years that refugee stay in comes in
tanzania and 19 years of providing
services to them for free event and
onions are not getting services for free
but also these are 19 years of denying
herself the human resources and other
social and economic contributions that
refugees can bring and at this point we
start hearing phrases
like the burden of hosting refugees or
donor fatigue because yes after 19 years
of not contributing anything refugees
become a burden there’s another thing
three years ago and the government
decided to close down in telecom the
Burundian camp I was approached by a 36
year old Burundian man who was
requesting me to try to convince the
government not to send him back to
Burundi so I wanted to know why he
didn’t want to go back and it is said to
me madam how can I survive there I am an
orphan my mother and father were killed
in the war I couldn’t understand how can
a 36-yard man who is married in house
kids think that he cannot survive
without his parents it’s only until I
met a dozen more about a dozen more
refugees with a similar play we started
making sense to me if this man let me
call him Dooku fled burundi in 1994 he
was a teenager then so he depended on
his parents or guardians for his basic
needs and when he arrived in Tanzania
UNHCR and other humanitarian
organizations took over that floor until
the day when he is told that you have to
go back to Burundi and such on your own
I wouldn’t want to go myself so what
does that tell us it tells us prologue
that prolong incumbent of refugees
hinders creates dependency in this
dependence in turn hinders the
attainment of durable solution like in
the case I just shared with you so
challenges in other factors in the cut
challenges in the cup and other factors
forces people or push people to abandon
camp or not to report there altogether
so these people form a part of what we
call an invisible so settled refugee
population they
live among us but they survived by
hiding their identities they don’t say
they don’t disclose that they’re
refugees and once we find out who
actually they are we always discriminate
them and exploit them common cases that
lawyers in my office deal with are cases
where refugees have been denied wages by
the employers and the employees
threatened to report them to immigration
if they keep on claiming or demanding to
be paid and I was when I was preparing
for this talk I ask my colleague
balloons what I could use his photo he
was doubtful and sage I wonder what I
should take that risk and he said I
can’t imagine my landlords reaction when
he finds out that I’m a refugee remember
balance has all legal papers allowing
him to be in the rez alarm and to work
but then other refugees as a refugee he
still susceptible to discrimination all
these realities seemed very distant
before I started working with refugees I
didn’t realize how close I was to
refugees I could possibly be a refugee
by any asleep of attend yes that’s true
that mark there is where my mother was
born and raised it’s the district called
in Gaara and that is randon Burundi
we’re at a certain point in time most
refugees came from so my mother’s
village is about 10 kilometers from
Burundi that’s actually closer than a
distance from where we are now to the
airport and inst when t six kilometres
from Rhonda that’s exactly the distance
I drive every day from my house to the
office so what if after the belly in
conference in those years
the border pasts a little to your right
what if I a refugee and had to spend 19
years in exile how would I want my
experience to be this is just an example
anyone can become a refugee any time so
I’m inviting you to imagine if that
happens to you how would you want to
experience to be tab on Becky’s a former
president of South Africa and in Costa
zhanna lanina Zuma the president of a
you and that beautiful lady Allah quirky
a famous model I’m sure everyone knows
her and Alicia Stella G famous singer
from Kenya many things she’s a Kenyan
but she’s not so all these four have at
least one thing in common they are all
former refugees so just like them if I
were to be a refugee I would want my
experience to be like them I would want
an opportunity to rebuild my life and I
would like an opportunity to use my
talents my education and my abilities to
just become where I want to be I don’t
want to look back and say I spent 19
years in exile they are just wasted
years I wouldn’t want that so it’s
obvious that the current way of dealing
rift with refugees has both refugees and
the host government so it is time that
we have to change the approach because
we cannot continue doing the same thing
and expect different results so we have
to make comes and an exception rather
than unknown we should allow refugees to
live among our communities lead normal
lives and be self-sufficient and get
opportunity to contribute to the economy
economic growth
of Tanzania before fleeing refugees were
so sufficient some of them are lawyers
like me doctors teachers entrepreneurs
like some of you present and have many
skill set that can be used in Tanzania
refugee surely lose their loved ones
lose their property when they flee but
they don’t use their intellectual
physical or technical abilities a capita
doesn’t forget how to make a table when
he becomes a refugee so if we allow
refugees to engage in wage-earning
employment and self-employment they may
bring in skills that are not readily
available in Tanzania I can’t give you
one example for those people who have
kids were going to school nowadays many
schools are teaching French but they’re
struggling to get French teachers so
refugees from this french-speaking
countries can really save in these
schools if they are prepared to do so
and give an opportunity to do so refugee
farmers can come with new skills I’m
sure tanzanians appreciate the
contribution of the Burundian refugees
former borundan refugees who have
recently been naturalized because these
were given an opportunity and their
contribution to the agriculture sector
in the area where they settled was
remarkable refugees would engage in
self-employment they’ll surely create
jobs for trans onions and also these
refugees if they allowed to live among
us they surely create a market for
products that stands on ian’s produce so
we are missing all these just because we
le this week actually on monday i was
presenting in a conference conference
that was organized by the university of
jerusalem College of Social Sciences on
the same topic when I was engaging with
the participants after the presentation
one participant asked me how do you
expect the Tanzanian government to be
able to support these refugees in urban
areas they are not able to provide
social services sufficiently to
Tanzanians how do you expect them to do
so to refugees so my response was I
think we should look at this like you
should just look at a bigger picture
when discussing these issues because if
you are talking about ending income
meant then there is a an opportunity of
channeling the resources that were
directed to the comes to urban areas or
other areas in the community and
strengthen institutions and facilities
that are there so that they can serve
refugees into the onions as well but
also remember at this time refugees will
be working you don’t need to handle
things to them so they’ll be paying for
some of these services and also their
revenue though we paying taxes so that
will contribute to the bigger budget
that is used to create and maintain
these services I said before that income
and should be alone shouldn’t be unknown
sorry it should be an exception so in
situations where we receive refugees
coming in flux for example definitely we
need some temporary reception centers so
that they can be screamed and registered
before they are allowed to get out and
settle incomes so yes in my lifetime
refugees can
seems to be a burden and become a
blessing and that is possible because
they laws international domestic laws
all support that UNHCR current policies
they also hold that neighboring
countries like Kenya and north Kenya
sori Uganda Zambia Rwanda they already
practicing that outrage partially so as
they saying Jenny geo- japoni tanzania
has a country in tanzanians have an
opportunity to enjoy the benefits that
are brought by refugees all we need to
do is to extend our usual hospitality to
them allow them live among us feel at
home until the time they return home
thank you [Applause]